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More Grollier Hall charges

Jennifer McPhee
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Apr 21/03) - Police have charged three former supervisors at Grollier Hall residential school in Inuvik with 29 new sex-related offences.

The charges include indecent assault and gross indecency, according to Inuvik RCMP Sgt. Mark Wharton. Paul Leroux, 63, faces 11 counts. Martin Houstin, 66, faces 13 counts and Joseph Jean-Louis Comeau, 69, faces five counts.

Grollier Hall was a dormitory-style residence for boys aged six to 19 run by the Roman Catholic Church.

Five years ago, both Leroux and Comeau were convicted of sex offences against students.

In 1998, Joseph Jean-Louis Comeau was sentenced to two years in jail for two counts of indecent assault committed in 1962 and 1963.

Comeau also served 18 months for two other convictions for gross indecency. Leroux was convicted of 14 counts of sexual abuse committed during the 1960s and 1970s.

He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and was released on parole less than four years later. Leroux now lives in British Columbia on full parole.

Earlier this year, his parole officer investigated allegations Leroux was sending threatening e-mails. The officer searched his computer and found no evidence of threats. However, Leroux's parole was suspended after the officer discovered he was visiting pornographic Web sites.

On April 1, the National Parole Board decided not to send him back to jail. According to the board's report, Leroux believed his parole conditions did not restrict him from accessing adult pornography.

Technically, he was right, the parole board decided. His conditions specifically forbade him from viewing or accessing child pornography.

However, the board amended his conditions, restricting him from looking at all pornography.

According to the board, "such material is, in fact, an indicator that your entrenched behaviour cycle is unmanageable and that this type of thinking error contributed to your indexed offences."